Travelling is stressful enough without luggage going missing, flights getting cancelled and having to slaughter your own poultry to make lunch. Yes, we hear you, travelling can be amahzing, but it can also easily turn into a nightmare, as we learn from these celebs’ travel horror stories. Who had spine-chilling encounters with the paranormal? And who was stuck in a small Himalayan village for six days due to bad weather? One thing we’ve surely learnt from grilling celebs on their travel disasters is this: The next time you complain about your gross, cockroach-infested hotel room, wait till you have to shower in pitch darkness from a shower tap, as did a certain celeb. Guess who?

1/14

1/14

Ben Yeo

“In 2005, while filming TVB drama Yummy Yummy in Hongkong, I was resting in my serviced apartment one afternoon when I felt like something was pressing on my chest. I tried to get up but I couldn’t. Finally, when I managed to, I saw that behind my bed frame, there was a white bed sheet flying around over my head. But I wasn’t scared at that moment, maybe ’cos it happened during daytime. And also at that time, I was working for like 20 hours every day, so I was too tired to bother about it. So I just continued sleeping. (Laughs) In fact, after that incident, I continued sleeping in that room for another month or so. To me, getting to sleep was already a luxury. So even if there was a ghost standing in front of me and he or she wants to 'eat' me up, I also wouldn’t have the energy to resist. (Laughs) I was really that tired! But now when I think back about it, it was quite scary lah.”

2/14

2/14

Jade Seah

“Recently, I went to Nepal to climb Everest Base Camp with four friends. And we were stuck in Lukla [which is a small Himalayan village that serves as the main entrance to the Mount Everest trail] for six days ’cos there were no flights going in and out [of the local airport] due to bad weather. Every morning, we’d get up at 4am and pack our bags, only to learn that there were no flights out. We just wandered around the town like zombies ’cos there’s nothing to do there. We played a lot of bridge. (Laughs) By the fifth day, we were done waiting. And so we tried to charter a helicopter. So we hiked two hours to this place called Surke. And at Surke, we saw a helicopter come and leave, but our helicopter never came. So we slept at the helipad that night, hoping for a helicopter to get us out the next day. (Laughs) The next day, our helicopter came and a group of American tourists tried to hijack our helicopter ’cos everyone was dying to get out of that place. They just ran to our helicopter and sat down in it. We thought we were stuck there for another day. But our guides got the porters to throw their luggage out of the helicopter. So they had no choice but to get out. (Laughs) When we got to [the Nepalese capital] Kathmandu, we found out that there were no more flights on that day ’cos the weather turned bad again. That was quite an experience. We had trekked for eleven days, came back, and thought we’d be able to go home early. But we ended up going back six days later [than originally intended]. We completely missed our international flight ’cos we were stuck there.”

3/14

3/14

Feeling so fly

The looks of happiness on the faces of Jade and Co. when they got off the helicopter at Kathmandu.

4/14

4/14

Wine about it

“There’s really not much to do at Lukla ’cos the town is really small. There’s one pub called The Irish Pub that is opened at night, so we went there on the first night. And the next day, we went for coffee at one of the only two cafes in the entire town. The café guy is the same guy who works at the Irish pub. (Laughs) And we went to the office to try and get them to write a form so we could claim insurance, and the guy who mans the place only opens the office at 3pm ’cos during the day, he’s working at the airport. So when you walk around the town, you see the same people. It’s like being stuck in Twilight zone!”

5/14

5/14

Not for the chicken-hearted

Jade’s friend with the live chicken that their guides bought from the weekly local market in Lukla. “There was no meat for us to eat there ’cos the meat wasn’t fresh, so we went for two weeks without eating meat. The only form of protein we had was egg. But on the second day, they said they ran out of eggs. (Laughs) So we were stuck eating rice and noodles and a lot of instant noodles. There is this weekly local market. And our guides decided that we needed to eat some meat, so they bought a live chicken from there. My friend carried it back to the place that we were staying and they slaughtered the chicken and made chicken curry. I felt so grossed out — I couldn’t eat it. For that lunch, I just ate rice and curry, but I didn’t touch the meat at all. Yuck! (Laughs)”

6/14

6/14

Michelle Chia

“Once, it took me 40 hours to return to Singapore from Moscow due to a flight delay ’cos of heavy snow everywhere in Europe. The waiting was already bad enough. But the worst part was when I was put on different flights in order to catch the next connecting flight in another city back to Singapore, only to miss them again and again ’cos every flight I took was delayed by the weather condition.”

7/14

7/14

Michelle hosting an episode of Borders

“I’ve also had lots of experience with gross hotel rooms. (Laughs) In 2012, I was in Pakistan to film Ch 8 documentary Borders. Since the topic of that program was about border towns, the city we were in didn’t have many hotels. Even if they did, they were far from one-star. (Laughs) My room and bathroom — more like a terrible public toilet — had no windows. And the main entrance doorknob was like those push-button doorknobs! I had cockroaches as roommates, and my bed sheets and pillow cases had shoe prints on them. The toilet was dirty with a cracked and badly-stained sink and toilet seat. Trust me, it was worse than a public toilet! The mirror was also cracked, and there was no toilet paper and no towel — not like I’ll dare to use it anyway. The shower head was not working. So every time I showered, I had to squat and wash my hair from a tap, while trying my absolute best not to lose my balance and land on that disgusting toilet floor. I also had to wash my set of clothes every single day ’cos I had to wear the same clothing for the entire episode which took four to five days to shoot. On top of all that, the 'hotel' had blackouts every two hours. Imagine the darkness I had to endure before the generator kicked in. We were told power would come back on in about five seconds. So I’d close my eyes and count to five, hoping nothing would appear in front of me when the lights came back on. Many times, the blackouts happened while I was taking a shower. No way could we have timed it ’cos no one from the 'hotel' could tell us when the last blackout was. I tried using my phone’s light but that made it worse. Imagine the white glowing phone in that horrible bathroom — I’d rather not see anything during those five seconds.”

8/14

8/14

Michelle in Russia to shoot Borders

“My luggage has also gotten lost many times at my destination. It’s not such a big deal if it was a personal holiday, but it’s a nightmare when it’s a work trip ’cos I have no toiletries, make-up, clothes and shoes for the next day’s shoot. Once, my luggage went missing when we arrived in a tiny little town near the Russia-China border. It was at night, and all I could do was buy what’s necessary for a shower at least and a blusher for the next day’s make-up — they didn’t have anything else in that small pharmacy. And I wore what I wore for my flight the next day for work.”

9/14

9/14

Romeo Tan

“In 2017, I travelled to Bangkok with my poly classmates. Upon arrival at my destination, when I went to claim my luggage, I found out that a lady had taken my luggage. According to the airport personnel, both our luggage are the same model and colour, so I think that’s why she mistakenly took mine. I spent about one to two hours at the airport filing some documents. So it was quite troublesome. And on that day, I had to go to the departmental store to buy toiletries and undergarments. Thankfully, I got back my luggage the next day. But I’d consider that experience as a horror story lah. (Laughs)”

10/14

10/14

Lights, camera… relax

Romeo having fun in Bangkok with his poly classmates last year.

11/14

11/14

Good reason to go shopping

Romeo wearing his newly-bought tee and berms on the first day of his Bangkok trip.

12/14

12/14

Bonnie Loo

“Last year, I went to Beijing for acting classes and I got cheated by a rickshaw driver once. I was alone at the Forbidden City hailing a rickshaw ’cos I wanted to go to the nearby bank to withdraw money. After getting on the rickshaw, the driver told me the trip would cost 3 yuan (S$0.60). But when we got there, he told me it was 300 yuan. We argued for a very long time. And then I got scared, so I gave him 250 yuan (S$50). Another time, a few years ago, I was in Thailand for a holiday. And I went to the local night market. I was carrying a sling bag. And I placed my mobile inside the zipper pocket on the outside of my bag. I kept putting my bag in front of me ’cos I was afraid of getting pickpocketed. But when I took out my wallet to buy something, I accidentally flung my bag behind me. And in that instant, someone snatched my phone away — those pickpockets are really very skilled! I never got my phone back.”

13/14

13/14

Kym Ng

“About ten years ago, I was filming [2010 Ch 8 cooking show] Love On A Plate in China. Once, I was in a mini-van with the crew driving up the mountains. And there was a landslide, so our mini-van couldn’t go any further. So we walked about three or four hours to get to the mountain top to do our filming. But ’cos there was a landslide, so we couldn’t come down. And nobody could come up to pick us too. So we had to spend the night in the village at the mountain top. There was this little empty wooden hut. So we decided to spend the night there. We had a campfire. And we started to chit-chat and take pictures. At one point, we gathered together to take a group photo. And the cameraman was like looking at us, then at the picture, and then at the background. Then, he asked the Executive Producer to come over and look at the picture. They deleted it on the spot. And we didn’t know what happened. The next morning, after we managed to come down, they told us that last night, while taking the group photo, there was someone standing behind us. (Laughs) I was like, 'Oh my god, luckily, you didn’t say anything!' If they had told us, I think we would all run out of the hut! (Laughs) They said that it was somebody old. That was the closest encounter I had with the supernatural in my whole life. I asked them, 'Did you delete the photo?' I believe that if you take a photo of something supernatural, that you shouldn’t keep the photo, or ‘it’ will go back with you! (Laughs)”

14/14

14/14

To one’s hut content

Kym filming Love On A Plate in China, a cooking challenge show that saw celebrity chefs cooking up a storm in rural villages overseas.